Tricks of The Trade
by G.Lilith
Summary: (chapter 1-still in progress) People John left behind on good ol' Earth deal w/ his


She sat, knees drawn to chin, arms wrapped securely about her legs to help capture any bodily warmth that lingered in the chil

She sat, knees drawn to chin, arms wrapped securely about her legs to help capture any bodily warmth that lingered in the chilly November night air. The stars blazed brilliantly overhead, each a tiny pinpoint poked as if with a needle by a hand infinitely large. Each star a possibility. Each a possible location of John. Or they could be millions of light years from where he was. He could be dead. Flashed insidiously through her mind. Angrily she pushed it aside, squeezing her eyes shut, willing the terrible thought to be gone. She knew in her gut that John lived. Kris would know if John were truly gone, and not just missing. She hadn't given up on the man who had saved her, even if everyone else on Earth had. Come back to me, John. Come back to me. She would wish on every star in existence until he returned.  
  
"Holy cow!" John breathed taking in his luxurious surroundings of the room about him.  
  
"'Holy' what?" Asked D'Argo obviously confused, squinting his eyes and peering intently at John. John didn't reply right away, instead he flopped down heavily onto a ridiculously large bed.   
  
"It's an animal, D'Argo. Some religions value them as sacred." John said almost impatiently, picking up a pillow and absently throwing it up and then catching it again.  
  
"An animal? What kind of animal?" D'Argo said obviously not letting go of his quest to translate "cow."  
  
"A big plant eating, spotted, docile, cow- pattie leaving, dumb beast." D'Argo was quiet for a minute before opening his mouth and then shutting it again.   
  
"Why would anyone worship such a useless creature?" D'Argo said, quickly deciding to ask. John tossed the pillow down on the lavishly draped bed and sat up, cocking his head to the side.   
  
"I don't know, D'Argo." He said quietly, wishing he could learn to keep his human sayings to himself, it was really very tiring to explain them all. Usually after he was done, he was fed up with the saying himself.   
  
"A pointless religion, I should think." D'Argo commented just as the others were entering the room.   
  
"No religion is useless, D'Argo." Stark said quietly while also taking in one of the rooms they would be staying in. "We must learn to accept all creeds and beliefs." He continued, fingering a large vase full of tropical looking flowers.   
  
"I think we should trade what we need, and get the frell out of here." Aeryan was saying to Rygel who was floating in his chair by her side as they came in. "I don't trust these... trappings," she said disdainfully pulling at an embroidered tapestry -like wall hanging, "anymore than I do the trader who owns them."   
  
"Relax, Aeryan!" John said springing off the bed as she entered. "Enjoy some good ol' R&R!" He finished by spreading his arms wide to indicate the room, and long beach outside the large windows.   
  
""'R&R?'" D'Argo asked putting down a purple fruit he was examining from a very large bowl of edibles. John groaned and hit the bed again, burying his face in the numerous pillows.   
  
*John was in pain, she could feel in every fiber of her body that something terrible was happening to him. Bright light surrounded her, she couldn't see where she was going. Her eyes burned if she tried to open them. "John!" She cried out, knowing he was somewhere in this place with her. Another wave of pain that was not her own hit her low, in the stomach, and she rolled to the ground in helplessness. "John!" She screamed again, reaching her hand up praying he would grab it. The light only intensified, obscuring any chance she had of finding John and stopping the evil thing she was sure was happening to him.*  
  
"Yo! Kris!" Kris woke abruptly, sweat streaming down her face, neck, and pooling uncomfortably as it was caught in the sports bra she wore to bed. "You were having some nightmare, chica." Said the calm, reassuring voice of her best friend and room mate, Nell.   
  
"Yeah." Kris said, her voice scratchy from dryness and sleep. She cleared her throat and tried again. "John's in trouble." Kris watched apprehensively to see if Nell would believe her, or just overlook it like everyone else did.   
  
"Kris, honey..." Nell started, but stopped at the crestfallen look on her friend's face.   
  
"Don't say it, Nell. He isn't dead." She paused, looking up from her lap defiantly into Nell's eyes. "And I'm NOT crazy!" She said with vehemence, slamming fists into her damp pillow.   
  
"Easy there." Nell said sitting gently by Kris's side on the bed. "You know I've always accepted the way you can.... feel things." Kris snorted shortly, looking away towards the wall. "No, really." Nell protested. "You're special with...intuition. I don't know what to call it, empath if you will.... But, Kris...." Nell trailed off, gently using her hand to bring Kris's head around to face her. "John is gone, dead Kris." Nell tried to say it gently, as she had a hundred times trying to bring Kris around to the truth. Some days she truly thought Kris had put the failure of John's experiment, and the cause of his death behind her, but at times like these- especially after those dreams, Kris seemed more determined than ever.   
  
"He isn't." Kris said quietly after a long pause. She looked full into Nell's eyes once again. "And he's in trouble."  
  
  
"Aeryan, it's easy." John was saying from one of three couches covered in a dark blue satin like cloth. "We give Colthar the Brillian Jewels we found on the busted Syrinthin trade ship we looted, and he gives as food. Easy as pie." Aeryan eyed John, one leg up over the couch's arm, the other dangling off. Aeryan wondered how he could let his guard down so. She sniffed and continued searching the room for any listening devices, cameras, or tracers that could possibly be hidden.   
  
"Whatever this 'pie' is, it just isn't going to be simple and that's that." Aeryan said picking up the vase Stark had been looking at, inspected the bottom, and carefully replaced it. "Syrinthins are traders, and all trader species have second agendas. They do not put up clients with a few Colthar Jewels in such... over done cells."   
  
"Ok, ok. I admit. It is kinda sketchy them locking down the doors at night, but like you said, they're traders. Probably just paranoid someone's gonna pull something and hijack the booty. They don't have weapons here, Moya's scans prove that claim. Locks are a pretty peaceful way of securing the area." Aeryan didn't even bother to have him explain "booty." She got the meaning well enough. She didn't even bother to voice her skepticism at the lack of weapons... no Trader would be so careless in the Uncharteds. John, as expected, continued to yammer on.  
  
"And as long as we have to share a room, you could stop sneaking about the place. You're making me dizzy just watching you." John continued. Aeryan merely glared at him. She was not particularly pleased she had to share room with John. It was either that, or Rygel. She wasn't so sure she had made the correct choice. At least Rygel shut up every once and a while.   
  
"Well you're hurting my ears. Do you think you could possibly be quiet until I'm done?" Aeryan said roughly picking up, and nearly crushing a delicate bowl, now empty of food, in her ire.   
  
"Whatever." John said leaning back and linking his hands under his head. "Just remember, you break it, you buy it." John chuckled softly to himself as Aeryan glowered at him from across the room.   
  
Rygel floated easily down the corridor early the next morning, much too early for his taste. One of his stomachs gave an uncomfortable growl that reminded him breakfast had been overlooked. Grumbling softly to himself only as he approached Colthar's door, so as not to shed bad light on his Dominar heritage, he waited quietly with the two guards outside Colthar's office.  
  
"Dominar!" Colthar exclaimed as he suddenly burst from his apartment, both large doors swinging far open in his exuberance. Rygel was still unnerved every time he saw one of these Syrinthins. They appeared to look too much like Peacekeepers. The human, Chriton, had given him enough of a shock. These look alike species were beginning to be a pain. Rygel attempted to hide his discomfort by returning a slight grin in return, which on Rygel seemed more like a sneer.   
  
"Supreme Merchant Colthar." Rygel replied quietly, eager to be done with the preliminaries and get down to the business that would bring him to his food.   
  
"Rygel," the large man said swinging abruptly around, his royal blue robes swirling about him, "I believe it's time we began the dealing. I also believe you and I share a common love for the game of price, ah, determination and are probably as eager as me to begin." He paused, his smile broadening all the more. "After you." Rygel glided into the room before Colthar so he was unable to see Colthar's welcoming smile vanish as quickly as it had come. His face was left with only a sinister look and a slight nod to the two guards before he himself entered. The two guards quickly shut the large doors and securely locked them before revealing hidden pulse rifles from voluminous green robes and taking up a lookout by the apartment.   
  
Kris sighed and pushed her senior math book away from her and turned her head to stare out the window. The morning sun did much to warm her back as it streamed in to her first period study hall. The class room was empty of students, the quiet was only interrupted by the teacher's light typing on her computer. Kris absently looked up at the sign out on the board. Most kids had used senior off campus privileges to go home, some out to eat. Kris tried to avoid her home as much as possible. The empty quiet left by John was only somewhat replaced by Nell. Kris knew Nell was only trying to help her by not leaving her alone, but at times Nell could do more harm than good.   
  
Being in the warm sunlight reminded her of the summer day nearly four years ago when John had stepped into her life. Her parents had both died within a year of each other. First her father during a test flight of a new U.S. Air Force jet. Then, her mother, a year later had drowned while swimming. Cause of death, she was told, had probably been a cramp in her mother's leg. She had been swimming out deep, too deep. Her mother had always prided herself on her swimming she had done professionally since high school. Kris did not miss the irony in either of there deaths. Both died because of a profession they loved. Kris, was then alone. No known relatives, no close adult friends. Kris found herself to soon be in the hands of the State.   
  
Kris had been walking down the walkway that led to her home for the last time, the social worker's car waiting patiently at the drive. That's when John came screeching to a halt behind the startled social worker.   
  
"May I help you?" The woman asked stepping out of her car. "If you're here to view the house, I can tell you it will be up for rent sometime during the next week, but the broker isn't here today." John had only smiled as he walked up the walk and quickly took Kris's bags from her before she could open her mouth to protest that she was just fine, and sick of everyone being so overly friendly and gallant.   
  
"Nope," he said smiling broadly at Kris, "I'm here to take this young lady home." Kris's jaw fell open again, this time in pure shock.   
  
"Wait, what? I'm sorry, but Ms. Kenson is under the protection of the state...." John cut her off with a wave of his hand in which were held a sheaf of papers.   
  
"Yeah, well, I'm John Chriton...Kris's legal guardian." The woman's jaw dropped just as Kris's had.   
  
"Sir, we when we couldn't contact you we assumed the best thing for Kris would be..."  
  
"Well, I was doing some work for NASA." He waited for that to sink in before continuing. "I was flying under the radar, so to speak. I just found out about Tom's and Gena's deaths." He stopped again and looked over and down at Kris. "I'm sorry, Kris. I wish I could've been here..." He trailed off not taking his eyes from hers. For the first time Kris felt truly grateful for offered sympathy. John was without pity for her, he was truly sad himself.   
  
John quickly began walking again, Kris close behind. He paused only to hand over the proffered paper work. "It's all in order. I'll be taking Kris home now." With that he turned around, nearly walking into Kris. At her surprised look, he quickly grinned.   
  
"I've taken up the rent here until your 18 and inherit the house. Welcome home."   
  
Kris felt the tears well up just as they had done then. Though this time, as she angrily wiped them away, they were filled with only empty pain. She looked up quickly to make sure the teacher wasn't watching only to find her gone. It was then that she felt it. The searing slash deep in her abdomen that she knew wasn't her own. She clutched at her side as she fell to the cold tiled floor, even as the light blinded her yet again. The vision of pain and light left as quickly as it had come, leaving her in a cold sweat curled on the floor.   
  
"Someone call the nurse!" A voice seemed to call just as the pain came again, seizing her once again in hurt she knew belonged to John.   
  
*John! JOHN! WATCH OUT!* She screamed over and over in her head. She moved into the pain, making it something else, realizing it wasn't real pain, but energy. She threw off hands attempting to help her up, angry that they were trying to hinder what she knew to be the connection she sought come at last. She harnessed her new found energy and screamed John's name and a warning as hard as she could hoping against all she knew to be rational and true that John would hear her so very far away.   
  
"Woah!" John awoke abruptly from a nightmare, falling off of his couch and to the plushly carpeted floor. Aeryan was on her feet nearly as fast, crouched low by the door expecting and waiting for an attack.   
  
"What are you doing rolling around the floor in the middle of the night for?." Aeryan asked impatiently, relaxing at the same time when she realized it was only John messing about. Again.   
  
"I'm not down here for the thrill of it." He answered, standing up and rubbing his hip. The couch was pretty large, it had been quite a fall. John eyed the wide bed Aeryan had claimed the first night they were here, three days ago. Then the negotiations were supposed to be quick. The rooms were only supposed to have been a precaution.   
  
John had moved to share the ample bed with Aeryan, but one dark look from her dispelled any images of a friendly sleep over attitude. He was couching it. He doubted Peacekeeper girls had sleep overs anyway... and definitely not pillow fights. While the couch was deceptively comfortable looking, and fine for lounging, it wasn't made for sleeping.   
  
"It was just a dream." John rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, trying to force away the image of Kris... he hadn't thought about her in a while, he realized guiltily. She would be 18 by now. He couldn't know which month is was back on Earth, but he'd been gone long enough.   
  
Aeryan noticed he seemed particularly shaken. She realized that she wasn't the only one off ease here in the Trader's home and place of business. Perhaps John wasn't all that oblivious after all. Maybe now he would listen to what she had to say.   
  
"Listen," she began placing hands on hips. "I don't like that we're being kept here for so long, either. Even Rygel is beginning to wonder why Colthar has taken so long to agree to a price for jewels he could buy boxes of." John hadn't realized he'd been that easy to read. The dream of Kris had felt more than real, she had been yelling... screaming something he couldn't quite catch. It was nothing good, that he could tell.   
  
"John, are you even paying attention?" John pulled himself from the reverie and decided to take a chance.   
  
"Do you believe in... visions?" He asked, looking at her straight on.   
  
"Is that what woke me up?" She asked, exasperated. "You think you were having a vision?" John wasn't deaf to the sarcastic tone she spoke in. First Scorpius in his head, and now he's having visions... Aeryan thought, closing her eyes for a brief second before facing him again.   
  
"I saw... a friend of mine, from back home. She was surrounded in... light, and screaming at me, like she knew something bad was going down..." He trailed off once he heard how absolutely nuts and out to lunch he sounded. "Crap. I sound like I'm a few bolts short of a bridge." Aeryan was silent, not even questioning what he meant by that last comment.   
  
"John," she said in the gentlest tone of voice she could muster... and that wasn't saying much. "Listen, it's just this absurd detainment that has put as all on our guards, and- " But Aeryan was cut off abruptly as the double doors to their room burst open and two very armed guards leveled pulse rifles at John and Aeryan.   
  
"If you stay where you are, comply to my wishes, and don't try anything foolish, I will not be forced to kill any of your party." Said the cool disembodied voice of Colthar.  
  
"What? Where-" John turned about confused, looking for where Colthar had hidden himself. Aeryan hadn't moved, a deep scowl on her face that John recognized as seething anger Peackeeper style. It was then that a wall panel, over the canopied bed slid away showing a holo not unlike Pilot's shell. Colthar grinned down at them, Rygel in restraints not a foot from Colthar.   
  
"Aeryan Sun, it would seem your searches were futile. Really, did you think I would be so foolish to allow you to find me out?" John had a feeling that Colthar would be made, by Aeryan, to eat those words. He just hoped he'd still be alive to see it, he added while looking down the barrel of a very large gun.


End file.
